The very unclear theory of ascending inferiority complexes. (in the case of epic/long poetry)
Let us start with Virgil, he wants to be Homer, and has an inferiority complex because of this, which infuses his work. Homer has no inferiority complex, because he comes at The Beginning Of Literature.
Following Virgil comes quite a lot of time, in which numerous people want to be him. Including Boethius, who will be important later on. Then come
Bocaccio and Dante who want to be Virgil/ Homer.
They are followed by
Chaucer who wants to be Dante, Bocaccio and also Boethius. Then we have another gap(in which we can argue that the Pearl Poet wants to be St John The Divine But we can also argue that he doesn't)
After the gap comes Marlowe who wants to be Virgil. Again. And then Milton who moves back even further, and decides that he wants to be Homer. The next person to move on is Blake who wants to be Milton. And then we can go on...
The point of all this is that it is impossible to ever write anything now, as I am crippled with my inferiority to Blake, Milton, Marlowe, Boethius, Chaucer, the Pearl Poet, Virgil and others. This is a vicious circle. Not enough philosophical study has been devoted to it.
posted by pseudo bohemian loser at 12:50 PM
4 Comments:
Gilgamesh is great, People weep, play the question game (-ish) and die. "I mourned him sevens days, til a maggot fell out of his nose!". But Homer was not trying to write Gilgamesh, unlike Virgil.
And maybe.
You already are writing epic poetry, unless I have been labouring under some serious delusion for the past few months. Or does co-writing not count?
Yes but I am experiencing problems with metre. But I don't think co-writing quite counts. And we are writing "EV Rieu translation style" (which is of course a new dance craze...)
Do you not notice what Milton, Marlowe and Chaucer studied! End I just discovered that Patricia Highsmith was a classicist :).
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